News

Huge crowds see Hayman animate the break and Ewan win the points jersey at the Tour de Yorkshire

Sun 30 Apr 2017

2016 Paris Roubaix champion Mathew Hayman animated the breakaway on a difficult final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire today with ORICA-SCOTT teammate Caleb Ewan producing a strong ride in the leaders jersey to seal victory in the points classification.

A challenging final stage that included eight categorised climbs unfolded with Hayman getting into the right move early on, to ensure that Ewan was protected in the peloton and given every chance of holding on to the green points jersey.

Hayman and his companions stayed away for some 120kilometres before the front of the race came back together ahead of the final, undulating circuits around Sheffield with Serge Pauwels (Dimension-Data) eventually taking the stage win and overall victory.

“It was another great performance from the team today,” said sport director Dave McPartland. “We were really motivated to do well and respect the leaders jersey by riding positively. Mathew Hayman was attentive early on and rode hard in the breakaway which gave Caleb the opportunity to hold onto the points jersey.”

“We wanted to have a go today and Caleb went deep on a parcours that certainly didn't suit our characteristics and he only lost contact with the leaders with around 25kilometres to go.”

It was a race of mixed emotions for ORICA-SCOTT with the initial objective of a stage win proving to be elusive despite consistent and confident performances.

Second place on stages one and two for Ewan saw the 22-year-old Australian win the race leaders jersey and take it into the final day of racing, but without much hope of contesting the overall victory on a long and mountainous stage to Sheffield.

The big blow came on day one with the unfortunate crash and subsequent loss of Clasica de Almeria winner Magnus Cort to a broken collarbone, with the young Dane only able to take scant consolation in the fact that it is a clean break and his recovery should be without complication.

“When you consider that we came into this race with the sole objective of winning a stage, then it would be easy to be disappointed with the way things played out,” continued McPartland. “However the team performed very consistently and it was only down to a couple of small mistakes that we missed out on the victory and we ended up achieving other goals.”

“Caleb is in great shape which bodes well for next weeks Giro d’Italia which is a huge event, especially in its centenary year. For Caleb to carry both the leaders and points jersey into the final stage here was no bad thing and it’s great for a young rider to get that experience in front of the huge crowds we’ve seen over the last three days.”

Canadian strong man Svein Tuft spent most of the race controlling the front of the peloton with consistently mature performances alongside road captain Hayman and the comparatively youthful Mitch Docker and Roger Kluge.

How it happened:

The third and final stage of the wonderful spectacle that is the Tour de Yorkshire got underway in Bradford today with ORICA-SCOTT’s very own Caleb Ewan in the leaders jersey and teammate and 2016 Paris Roubaix champion Hayman animating an early five-rider breakaway.

After 50kilometres of racing the Hayman group had swelled to seven riders and developed a four and a half minute advantage on the peloton.

Race leader Ewan dug deep and after initially climbing well was still in the peloton after the brutal Shibden Wall climb with less than 90kilometres remaining.

Hayman took the intermediate sprint points at Clifton with the group now two minutes 45seconds ahead of the bunch.

The race started to come alive on the climb of Holmfirth as the peloton increased the pace behind the breakaway with the Hayman group now down to just over one minute with 45kilometres to go.

The group was finally caught with 25kilometres to go after attacks by Direct-Energie out of the front of the peloton blew the race apart with four categorised climbs still to come.

A heavily reduced bunch went on to contest the win with Omar Fraile and Pauwels of Dimension-Data executing a textbook one-two over the final 20kilometres with Pauwels taking the stage and overall race win.